Pacific Outreach Fiji ship in boxes for the young

Donations continue to flow in for the people of Koro Island, especially the many students affected after Tropical Cyclone Winston.

Koro was the worst hit when the monster storm swept through the country.

Last week, the Pacific Outreach Fiji donated books to the children on island.

Director Peter Kingston said all the schools they visited were about half or three quarters damaged, with most classes now taking place in large tents donated by the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

“We gave three boxes of Australian library books to each primary school and five boxes to the only secondary school,” he said.

“The Ministry of Education gave us a list of 24 cyclone-damaged schools in three of Fiji’s outer islands, the first of which was Koro Island.

“The books were received with great joy as the Tropical Cyclone Winston had swept away just about everything, either by the strong winds or in the powerful waves that followed.

“We’re thankful to the Eastern Education Office in Suva, as they were extremely helpful in organising diesel trucks to take us from one village to the next, along with all the boxes of books.

“They also helped organise our stay with the head teachers of some of the schools we went to. The Goundar Shipping kindly donated our tickets to go there, along with transportation of the 26 boxes of library books that we were bringing for all the eight schools on the island.

The group has a list of 24 top priorities, cyclone-damaged primary schools to donate books to, given to us by the Ministry of Education.

“Another list we received from the department is in charge of kindergartens,” he said.

“Most of these schools are far from the capital, in Koro Island, Vanuabalavu Island and Taveuni, and so we’re trying to put together a plan of how to get the books to all 24 of these remote schools.”

Ashna Kumar

Edited by Naisa Koroi

Feedback:  ashna.kumar@fijisun.com.fj